Sunday, February 28, 2010

Saturday's night all right for ... folking @ Oliver (& Cécile) Peel's place once again.Lots of familiar faces in this private appartment for the session #18.(click for many more Pics)

First to play is Scottish girl Sophie Ramsay, who's the last minute addition do this Folk bill.First song a cappella in Gaelic, a first here then 3-4 very soft folk songs.Probably one of the "quietest" artist that Oliver ever had.

Headlining tonight, before playing the Pop'In tomorrow @ 9:00PM, is a American singer-songwritter from Sacramento ( currently living in Canada (?) ) Rose Melberg, with a little help from her friend Kellarissa on vocals on all songs.The headlining act is also playing very soft folk songs with beautiful harmony vocals.

Another indie rock band , this time based in Brooklyn, NY, & another band in which musicians are switching of instruments. Nothing new.I mean all these bands are quite enjoyable, White Rabbits have an additional guy on percussions to give extra rythm power unfortunately what is missing is A song, nothing comes out in particular , thye miss melodies for the songs or a hook for the chorus.So enjoyable but there's something missing.

There was a recording of Arte tv show " One shot not" as usual those bastards don't want to give the names of the artists ( Jamie Cullum among many others tonight ).There's another recording tomorrow night

After watching Field Music confortably seated in the red sofas of the studios 105 with 250 other fellows. We need a small break, technicians need to change the set for Le Loup which is the second bnad to play tonight , this time LIVE on France Inter radio.Completely different style , this time their music is closer to what Vampire Weekend can do with less African influences but much more dance.They have a funny little singer whose acting on stage a bit like Tom Yorke ( moving a lot) & singing like Perry Farrell ( with lots of effects on the voice ).Musically not really my cup of tea

Make your own opinion with this video ( not representative of their repertoire):

Tonight is a special night for the Black session as there are two recordings.First one is @ 8:15 PM with Field Music ( it will be broadcasted next week ) and second one is live on France Inter radio with Le Loup @ 10:00 PM as usual.OK let's start with Field Music, they are an English band formed in 2004 they have split and then reformed recently , they have a third album out called " Field Music (measure)".They are classified as an indie rock band but after hearing this black session, iI can tell you that they sound like a young prog. band with some jazz influence though not obvious, the musicianship is high, they'de better be good musicians as the songs are deconstructed with several breaks and rythm changes.The drummer is also singing and playing guitar, the keyboard player is singing and also playing drums.Interesting gigCheck them @ Point Ephémere in Paris on April 20th.Once again it's more and more difficult to take Pics @ Black session, Don't know why ? these bands are for most of them completely unknown, don't they need publicity ?

Friday, February 19, 2010

Two months after playing a secret -private acoustic show for an Oliver Peel session ( click for review, setlist, pics & video) in Paris, Troy Von Balthazar is back but this time with the reform CHOKEBORE.

Strangely enough , I knew who was Troy but I've never heard of Chokebore before and i've never listen to the band before tonight.I've been told they opened for Nirvana a few years ago and Kurt siad in the press that it was one of his favorite band so they've been called 'grunge' but this Hawaian band is more indie rock.

In fact their music is closer to Pearl Jam with on one hand some heavy tunes and on the other hand some relax but dark tunesThe Maroquinerie is Sold-out and down the front Frenchies know the lyrics inside out, the atmosphere is relax even though at the end there was a bit of crowdsurfing for the heavier songs.

Cool 80 min+ set , setlist may not be accurate and missing one song as Troy took requests for the encore.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Before playing tonight a sold-out @ La Cigale, the talk of the town THE XX are playing a showcase at the Fnac Forum store @ 5:30 PM.You could get invit from the store a couple of weeks ago on a "first come first serve basis".Fans are coming quite late but the place is packed ( 300+ people).

All the medias are talking about this band, they've already played in Paris a few times including a first show at Point Ephemere in Oct 2009 (Correction: The first show in Paris was @ Social Club on July 1st 2009 ), they were completely unknown 6 months ago and now their shows are sold-out.

Hard to believe they're so popular considering the music they're playing.I never heard them before and many friends told me The XX were just great.Should I trust them ? I guess NOT, It's so lame , You know that here @ Rockerparis we love wild guitars, well... it's not really a guitar band and the minimalism of the music doesn't talk to us at all.

Sorry for the pics once again, it seems that @ Fnac they want bands to play in complete darkness.I'll try to post a video later

Setlist

We went yesterday @ Fnac St Lazare to see Micky Green playing a 40 min showcase.She's gorgeous ( she's a former model) but the music is crap.He record Cie refused that we take Pics during her set, what a bunch of cunts !